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Visiting Central America by Cruise Ship

In 2008, I had a cruise booked to Alaska departing from Vancouver. My friend and I flew into Vancouver and were going to spend the night there before departing on the ship and traveling to Alaska. However, I was denied entry into Canada because of an old criminal record; three non-person felonies from the late 1980's. I was devastated; I had no idea that something that old could affect my chances of getting into Canada.

I am now looking at a cruise that departs New Orleans and makes stops in Mexico, Honduras and Belize. My friend says that unless you are going to spend the night visiting a country, the passport always stays on the ship. So how does that work? Would I have a problem going to these countries because of convictions that are over 20 years old?

Definitely check with your cruise line. They will scan your passport when you board the ship initially, so anything may come up at that point and that is where you may have the issues. We just recently were on a Carribbean cruise and only needed our passport in Puerto Rico - which I thought was strange. But we also went to St Kitts and St Martin. They never scanned the passports there.